It is very difficult for hairdressers, and also their customers, to visualize precisely the final result on a customer's hair when a certain hair colour, tint or pigment is applied to the customer's hair. In many cases, because of the wide variety of basic hair colours, ranging from black to blonde, and individual characteristics of various customers, it is not possible to accurately predict the outcome, when a particular hair colour is applied to the particular customer's hair. The end result is often something which the customer is not satisfied with. In many cases, the customer refuses to pay the hairdresser for the hair colouring job or the colouring has to be redone, at no charge, to the customer's satisfaction.
A number of patents have been granted over the years relating to hair colouring techniques and colour mixing.
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor Issue Date ______________________________________ 1,629,330 Adler May 17, 1927 1,657,413 Schumer January 24, 1928 2,221,774 Bowser November 19, 1940 3,609,886 Vien October 5, 1971 3,702,508 Netter November 14, 1972 4,224,745 Hubbard September 30, 1980 4,258,478 Scott March 31, 1981 4,583,562 Stewart April 22, 1986 4,761,137 Taylor August 2, 1988 5,209,664 Wilcox May 11, 1993 ______________________________________
Six of the foregoing merit specific comment. Vien discloses a method of choosing commercial hair colouring dyes. Vien demonstrates a folder displaying coloured samples of dyed hair. Each page within the folder features a base hair colour and teaches the results the customer can achieve by applying a particular tint from a commercial line of hair colouring products.
Netter discloses a device for displaying sample locks of dyed hair. This device allows the customer selecting a hair dye to see the shade which will result from using a particular tint from a commercial line of dyes.
Taylor discloses a method of visually examining the colour which will result from mixing combinations of commercial dyes before the mixture is applied to the customer's hair. The device allows the operator to rotate transparent colour cones one over top of another to show the resulting tint.
Hubbard discloses a teaching aid which uses heat to simulate the results that can be expected when chemical permanent wave solutions and commercial dyes are applied to the human scalp.
Scott discloses an apparatus which allows the customer to visually preview the results of hair styling and colouring. The apparatus uses a slide projector to project images of realistic colour and or hair styles, in combination with an image of the customer's face, onto a viewing screen.
Wilcox discloses an artist's palette which teaches colour mixing techniques.